Buy It, Steal It, Skip It: Music Releases for the Week of April 12

The music of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings may feel like it should be coming from a phonograph and not an iPhone, but that’s only because they pride themselves on their authenticity. Sure, it sounds like an old Stax record, but have you heard anything else since the advent of file sharing that so often gets compared to the cool, seductive racket of the 60s? There isn’t much room for the Dap Kings to change sonically—their music is practically a study in nostalgia—and I Learned the Hard Way, their fourth record, doesn’t deviate from their horn heavy, James Brown-inspired sound. On their previous records, Jones churned out window-shattering vocals that made seeing her live an obligation, but this time around she and the Dap Kings have put together something that might have made the Billboard charts back in the day, and come to think of it has a pretty good shot at doing so now.

Verdict: Buy it (on vinyl!)MGMT Congratulations (Columbia)

If you stepped foot in an American bar during the summer of 2008 you probably heard MGMT. And if you’re looking for more of the druggy, candy-coated pop tracks that powered their debut, Oracular Spectacular, the Wesleyan-educated duo’s follow-up, Congratulations, is not for you. Everyone always knew Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Martin Goldwasser were weird—their headbands and cargo-cult wardrobe told us that much—but on Congratulations they embrace being, like, really far out there, man. With nods to Brian Eno (there’s actually a song named after him) and Aladdin Sane-era Bowie, MGMT is certainly shooting for the experimental-rock stars with Congratulations. The problem is—with the exception of precisely two songs, “Something’s Missing” and the title track, “Congratulations”—it’s not all that compelling. Weighed down by one aimless 12-minute ballad and a handful of tracks that feel like jumbled heaps of big ideas, Congratulations is an exercise in artistic overconfidence for MGMT—and a struggle for even the most ardent fan.